Charles Pfizer

Charles Pfizer (also: Charles Pfizer) ( born March 22, 1824 in Ludwigsburg, † October 19, 1906 in Newport (Rhode Iceland ) ) was a German chemist. Karl was the fifth child of a pastry chef. As Forty- Eighter the apothecary's apprentice emigrated to the USA and founded in 1849 with his cousin Charles Erhart in Williamsburg in Brooklyn the pharmaceutical company Pfizer.

Charles Pfizer and Charles Erhardt borrowed $ 2,500 from Pfizer's father and bought a small building in the Bartlett Street in Williamsburg / Brooklyn. There they produced the chemical Santonin against parasitic worms. Gradually, they expanded their product line, for example, iodine salts. 1857 the building had become too small and in the center of Manhattan, a new office was opened. Eleven years later, the office was moved to 81 Maiden Lane near Wall Street. Here in 1878 one of the first phones of the city was installed.

By 1860, the company produced borax and boric acid, and was the first major producer of these chemicals in the United States. During the Civil War allowed for a protective tariff against imported Weinstein to start local production of the cream of Tartari from Weinstein. Tartaric acid was used as a medicine on the battlefield to treat the wounds and diseases of the Union soldiers.

Pfizer was often in Europe in order to maintain contact with its raw material suppliers. He met his wife Anna Hausch and married her in 1859 in Ludwigsburg. They had five children, two of whom (Charles jun., And Emile ) further led the company.

The Pfizer expanded after the Second World War, with the main production of synthetic citric acid and began the manufacture of antibiotics and penicillin. In 2009 she set the world by 50.1 billion USD.